Courtesy: The Canadian Press

By Randi-Marie Adams

The B.C. Governments call to decriminalize small amounts of illicit drugs, grows louder

Feb 15, 2021 | 10:58 AM

Prince George – British Columbia’s overdose crisis claimed more lives last year than homicides, suicides, and car crashes combined. Now, the B.C. government continues its calls for the decriminalization of small amounts of illicit drugs.

” I want to put the Federal Government on notice, in a very positive way..that I will continue to support the call from the National Police Chiefs, last week, that we decriminalize personal use of opioids so we take away the criminal stigma and focus on what this really is…a health care crisis.” ~ John Horgan

That was from July 2020, And after Last week’s numbers, which were released by the BC corner’s office. The call grows stronger, especially out of the Northern Health region, more specifically Prince George. Juls Budau, who is the Interim Executive Director with P.O.U.N.D.S Project says; this would be a huge step forward.

” In a perfect world I would want drugs to be regulated and legal. Just like any other drug like what we’ve done with weed and how alcohol is now, alcohol was once illegal.”

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These numbers are alarming, even more so when you look at the specific areas, with Prince George sitting in the TOP 5, with some of the highest rates per capita by local health regions, putting that into perspective, Prince George is right there with Vancouver, which has triple the population’s size.

” I think that our number was 58 for 2020 a city that is, how many people 70-thousand, it’s really high If this request is granted B.C. would become the first jurisdiction in Canada with the exemption.

However, it is unknown when this will actually happen. Sheila Malcolmson minister of mental health and addictions says it’s a matter of federal responsibility.

” The move towards decriminalization is an important element of British Columbia’s response to the overdose crisis, in particular, because it can remove the stigma that prevents people from reaching out and asking for help. and then at the same building those treatment and support resources that they need.”

The question is then, what would this actually mean?

” By decriminalizing small amounts of illicit drugs, personal possession of illicit drugs, that we get two benefits from British Columbia, 1) is that the police are then able to concentrate on more serious crimes and particularly go after drug traffickers and at the same time removing and impediment, the stigma that prevents people from admitting that they have an addiction problem and reaching out”

Juls says, more needs to be done to build the trust needed to help in the overdose crisis.

” I think that a really important thing is that medical professionals when they claim to be tram informed, they need to understand that these people have been traumatized by medical professionals before seeing you. And you need to ensure, that what you are saying isn’t going to further that traumatization and stop them from accessing help. ”

The B.C. government is urging people to avoid using alone, Malcomlson says more people are using alone, leading to tragic increases in overdose deaths.

CKPG will continue to follow and update you on the overdose crisis affecting our region and city.